PS Vita Youtube App Update 2.00

By Michael Crawford Fri, December 07, 2012 - 5:11:12

Today the Youtube App on the PS Vita, which was already quite decent, just got better.

I personally used this app on my PS Vita quite a lot. Sometimes you don’t feel like getting out of bed to go over to your computer but you want to watch a quick Youtube Video. Well my Vita’s right beside me… awesome let’s watch some Youtube in bed with this awesome OLED screen. My only problems with this app was the fact that there was no way to watch any videos you may have put inside your “Watch Later” section on Youtube, I sometimes would put a whole anime series in that section and was hoping one day that this app would get an update and it is here! Anyway here are all of the updates and changes that have been made to the application below.

+ Subscriptions and channels: Now you can view and manage your subscriptions (including your subscription to the PlayStation YouTube channel), browse all videos on a specific channel and check out detailed information in the “About this channel” menu option.

+ Improved controls: We’ve added new functions on controls including Next/Previous buttons, a loop video option and the ability to browse videos while another is playing, making it easy to select preferred videos without interrupting playback.

+ Playlist settings: You can now create playlists and add videos to your playlists, including your Favorites or Watch Later lists.

+ Closed captions: Captions help deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers enjoy YouTube videos, and they’re also useful if you forgot your headphones and want to watch videos in a loud (or quiet) setting while on-the-go. Now you can display closed captions when playing videos. Look for the captions icon on the video thumbnail. You can even change the language of captions in the options menu.
+ Continuous playback: In the settings menu, you can now enable continuous playback, so your next video selection will start to play automatically.

+ PS Vita buttons: You now have the option to use the PS Vita buttons to control playback and menus, which can be enabled in the Settings > System menu.

+ Share: Show that you’re tuned in—Tweet, Email or group message your friends the name and URL to the latest video. You can also invite people to check out any channel on YouTube — like the the PlayStation YouTube channel — via group message, so they don’t miss a beat.
Improved search: You can now use search filters — sorting by upload date or duration, for example — making it easier than ever to find your favorite videos.

I’m glad that the developers of the PS Vita applications aren’t just putting out their apps and leaving them without trying to update, fix and change them for the better. Netflix, Skype, Facebook, all of these apps have had updates to their applications after they first came out and I’m glad they care. Twitter on the Vita needs an update though.. just saying the thing was crashing on me during the Walking Dead Mid Season Finale.. not cool..So does Flickr.. that app is kinda messed up.

*Update*
There is one thing I found out in this application with the help of Romudeth. The latest feature they added which allows PS Vita users to send Youtube links to each other is an awesome idea but the only problem is that when you press on the Youtube Link sent to you it doesn’t take you to the Youtube App. Instead it takes to you the Web Browser App which if you didn’t know, you can not watch Youtube videos on your PS Vita using it’s Web Browser application.

Here you see I’m sending a PS Vita message of a Youtube link to Romudeth which is cool. All he has to do it tap on the unlined section of the message and it should take him to the video.

But like said before when he taps on that link it doesn’t send him over to the Youtube application, it sends him to the Web Browser which I said before doesn’t work. Weird part is as far as know at one time you were able to use and watch Youtube Videos on your PS3 using it’s Web Browser but now they have disabled it. If you’re trying to go to Youtube on you PS3 it will just send you to the PS Store to download the PS3 Youtube application. Obviously they don’t want you watching Youtube videos using the Web Browser on the PS3 so what’s the difference here? I have no clue.. and you can’t even put the video into your “Watch Later” section while here so it’s not like you can just add the video to that section and quickly head over to the Youtube app. That solution doesn’t exist either but you can add it to your favorites and do it that way. Ehh… What I ended up doing was creating a new Playlist on Youtube called “Youtube Vita Links” so now if I see a Youtube link on Twitter or via PSN Message on my Vita, when it sends me to the Web Browser Youtube page of it, i’ll just add it to that playlist and then open up the Youtube app and there we go.. Yeah it seems like a lot of work but hey.. we are all lazy people.. and will find ways to figure something out.

*Another Update Folks*
So earlier today I decide to watch a video on the http://www.youtube.com/user/STFUandPlayTV youtube page on my Vita. But before that maybe you haven’t seen it yet but Youtube has done another interface revamp and like always not a lot of people are liking the new layout. So I’m on my Vita and realized that since the interface for regular computer’s youtube has changed so has the internet browser interface on the Ps Vita since it was based off that version.

Here’s how the new interface on Youtube for a regular web browser would look

Here’s how the web browser youtube video page looks on the Ps Vita now. It looks quite messy if you ask me but there was a purpose for it. It actually does exactly what you want it to do now when you tap on the play icon in the middle of the video screen it opens up the Ps Vita Youtube application and loads up the video there! That’s awesome that in a matter of days they were able to fix the only issue I had with this whole app. Thank goodness now I can get rid of that Playlist I made specifically for this inconvenience and move on with my life..